insects

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Save the World: Eat a Spider
 Save the World: Eat a Spider 
Apr 19, 2011 5:14 AM CDT

Save the World: Eat a Spider

Spiders, ants, locusts so much easier on the environment than cattle

(Newser) - It sounds creepy, but one of the best ways to save the world could be turning to creepy crawlies. Western gourmands generally find dining on bugs unpalatable, but for some 2.5 billion people in the world, especially in tropical regions, spiders and insects have long been part of the...

Virus Wiping Out Crickets Raised for Snakes

Cricket farms being forced out of business

(Newser) - These are hard times for America's cricket farmers, and unless a virus is brought under control, they could become hungry times for pet snakes. The virus has swept through farms, killing millions of the crickets raised for pet reptiles and zoo animals, and driving several farmers out of business, the...

Bedbug Mess Brings Work to NYC Actors

... helping people clean apartments before extermination

(Newser) - At least one group of New Yorkers has benefited from the city's bedbug problem: out-of-work actors, many of whom have taken jobs as extermination preparers, the Wall Street Journal reports. They "have great personalities and follow directions well," says the owner of one company who hires them to...

Jiminy Cricket! Insect Has World's Biggest Cojones

It's got biggest testicles, in terms of body weight

(Newser) - Even the most well-endowed men have nothing on the tuberous bushcricket, or katydid, which UK biologists say holds the world record for the creature with the largest testicles—at least in relation to the weight of its body. At 14% of body weight, this would be equivalent, in human terms,...

Scientists Discover New Insect on Easter Island

It's rare good news on the damaged island

(Newser) - A new insect species has been discovered in a cave on Easter Island, a significant find given that most of the island's indigenous life has gone extinct, reports LiveScience . The insect is so new it has yet to be named, but it's a type of book louse about the size...

5 Creepy Facts About Bedbugs
 5 Creepy Facts About Bedbugs 
Jul 31, 2010 9:29 AM CDT

5 Creepy Facts About Bedbugs

They have a smell...that comes from their feces

(Newser) - Bedbugs are back in a big way, with infestations closing at least two stores in New York City recently. AOL News lists five things you should know about these creepy crawlers:
  1. They smell: If you can smell their sweet, musky scent, chances are you’ve already got an infestation
...

Try Some Locusts on Your Pizza
 Try Some Locusts on Your Pizza 
Apr 19, 2010 4:00 PM CDT

Try Some Locusts on Your Pizza

Australians beset by plague of insects try to make the best of it

(Newser) - When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. When life gives you swarms of locusts, make pizza. One enterprising politician in the Australian state of Victoria, which is under siege by the aggressive insects, collected a garbage bag full to be used in place of pepperoni and meatballs. "You can't...

Bedbug Dogs Sniff Out Bloodsuckers

Trained hounds in high demand as infestations rise

(Newser) - The resurgence of an old pest has created new jobs for dogs. Bedbug infestations have soared in American cities over the last four years, creating boom times for exterminators, especially those using canny canines trained to detect the tiny suckers. Handlers say the dogs can expertly sniff out infestations and...

Crazy Ants Swarm Gulf Coast
Crazy Ants Swarm
Gulf Coast 
Sep 5, 2009 5:15 AM CDT

Crazy Ants Swarm Gulf Coast

Tiny, frenetic munchers invade homes, snack on electrical wiring

(Newser) - Billions of "crazy ants" are munching their way through Gulf Coast counties in Florida and Texas, the Wall Street Journal reports. The tiny insects, believed to have originated in the Caribbean, happily make their homes in human dwellings and are tough to dislodge once they move in. The...

Disease Threatens Florida Oranges

Scientists search for solutions to citrus greening disease

(Newser) - Florida’s orange growers face a powerful adversary in a disease know by its shorthand of HLB that causes citrus trees to “green”—produce only sour, misshapen fruit, Scientific American reports. With every county in the state affected, the citrus industry has dedicated $10 million this year alone...

Cyborg Bugs Could Warn of Fires, Chemical Attacks

(Newser) - Cyborg bugs may sound like creatures in a Michael Bay movie, but they could save your life, New Scientist reports. The Pentagon is trying to implant electrodes in crickets and cicadas—which communicate via wingbeats—and program them to “speak” differently around certain chemicals. “The insect itself might...

Giant Ant Colony Spreads Across World

Insects from different continents treat each other as family

(Newser) - In what may be a first for the animal kingdom, one giant family of ants has established itself in different parts of the world, the BBC reports. Researchers studying the species known as Argentine ants in Europe, the US, and Japan found that they had a strikingly similar chemical profile,...

Fly Strike Shows Another Side to Prez

No 'negotiation' in direct smack

(Newser) - President Obama’s precision fly-swatting has caught the nation’s attention—perhaps because it showed a surprisingly forceful approach, writes Maureen Dowd in the New York Times. “Some Americans fear that President Obama is too prone to negotiation, comity and splitting the difference,” Dowd notes. “This moment...

PETA to Obama: Flies Have Feelings, Too

Group unhappy with prez's brutal fly attack

(Newser) - At least one group isn’t impressed with the president’s killer reflexes: PETA. The animal-rights group sent Obama a no-kill trap after he nailed a fly, midair, during a CNBC interview Tuesday. The bug-battling tool captures insects alive. “We support compassion for even the smallest animals,” says...

Super Fly No Match for Obama Death Slap

Lightning-fast prez pulverizes persistent fly during White House interview

(Newser) - A fly that invaded a CNBC White House interview yesterday was no match for the leader of the free world, the Christian Science Monitor reports. After repeatedly warning the fly to get out of there and let him discuss financial regulation in peace, President Obama delivered a surgical strike, dispatching...

Bush Interrogation Memo Approved Use of Insects

(Newser) - Among the weirder revelations emerging from the newly released CIA memos on harsh interrogations: Bush administration lawyers approved the use of insects. Apparently, one detainee in particular had a phobia about them, so interrogators wanted to slip one into his "cramped confinement box," Time reports. The technique never...

Pay for Soup, Enjoy Insects, Mold Free
Pay for Soup, Enjoy Insects, Mold Free
OPINION
Feb 13, 2009 1:33 PM CST

Pay for Soup, Enjoy Insects, Mold Free

FDA's classification of food 'defects' a slippery slope

(Newser) - If you're eating, stop reading now: The FDA's rules on foreign matter in food products are a veritable entomology lesson. Maggots, fly eggs, rodent droppings, grit, mold, burlap, cigarette butts, and parasites are all OK with the agency in limited quantities, writes EJ Levy in the New York Times, adding,...

Mosquitoes Sing Love Songs

(Newser) - Birds and bees get all the attention, but mosquitoes have some love moves all their own, scientists say. It seems that when a boy mosquito meets a girl and things turn romantic, their wings beat at precisely the same speed to create a sort of harmonic mating song, the BBC...

Surprise! Coked-Up Bees Get Buzzed, Too

Drugged-up bees get overexcited and dance like crazy

(Newser) - Coked-up bees get as buzzed as their human counterparts, the New York Times reports. Researchers probing the nature of addiction discovered that when bees were given a dose of cocaine their judgment was altered and they became much more enthusiastic about food finds, performing the waggle dance more often, faster,...

An Insect Bioterror Strike? Sounds Overblown
An Insect Bioterror Strike?
Sounds Overblown
opinion
Jan 5, 2009 8:49 PM CST

An Insect Bioterror Strike? Sounds Overblown

(Newser) - Sure, bug swarms can spread nasty things, but using them to unleash bioterror isn't as easy as they say, Robert Roy Britt writes in LiveScience. One expert said in the Telegraph today that dispersing insects as weapons is "relatively easy"—but consider that terrorists would have to team...

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